Mendeley Basics Get Mendeley 1. Go to www.mendeley.com 2. Create an online account and download the software. Use your MIT email address to get extra storage with our institutional account. 3. Open Mendeley and use the Tools menu to install the Web Importer (to import citations from web sites) and the Microsoft Word plugin, to insert citations into a paper. Get Articles and Documents into Mendeley Import Citations from a Website 1. Make sure you have installed the Web Importer. 2. When you have found an article or list of articles that you want to save, click the Save to Mendeley button at the top of your browser. 1
3. If there is a list of articles, click the plus sign next to each you want to save. 4. For a single article, you can specify which folder to save it in. In some databases, Mendeley will find the PDF (if available) and you can download the PDF along with the citation. Import PDFs from Your Computer There are several ways to get PDFs into your library. Mendeley will automatically look for the citation information for each PDF, however you may have to enter it manually into the Details tab. Drag and drop PDFs into your library. Use the Add Files button and browse to a pdf. Go to Tools > Options > Watched Folders and select folders for Mendeley to monitor. When you add a PDF, it will automatically be added to Mendeley. Attach files to a citation in the Files section of the Details for that citation. 2
Sync with Zotero Mendeley will import citations and PDFs from Zotero, using the same file structure as in Zotero. 1. Activate this option under Tools>Options>Zotero 2. Check Zotero integration. It may automatically find the location of your Zotero Library. If it not, find the location in Zotero under Preferences> Advanced> Files and Folder. Click Show Data Directory. Mendeley will sync files from Zotero, but Zotero will not sync files from Mendeley. Tip and Tricks: Mendeley does not import citations from as many databases as Zotero. You may want to try importing from your favorite databases when deciding which tool to use. Find your newly imported citations in the Recently Added section of your Library or sort by the Added column. View Your Citations in Mendeley Desktop Open Mendeley. Any citations you imported will be listed in the main window. Details about each citation will be on the right side in the Details tab and can be edited. 3
Create Collections Click the create folder buttons to make a new folder. Tips and Tricks: Click on All Documents to see everything in your library. Copies of the citations will be moved into your folders, but they will still remain in All Documents. A citation can be placed in many folders at once. Cite References in Your Paper and Create a Bibliography 1. Open Mendeley and then Microsoft Word. 2. On Windows, the Mendeley toolbar is under References in the Mendeley Cite-O-Matic section. On a Mac, the toolbar is in Applescript menu or floating, depending on version. 3. Click insert citation. 4. Search for an article or click Go to Mendeley, select an article, and press the cite button. 5. To insert a bibliography, move the cursor to end of the document and click Insert Bibliography 6. Select the citation style from Style drop down menu in the toolbar. 4
Tips and Tricks: Click More Styles from the Styles drop down menu to go to the complete style library. To create a bibliography from citations in your Library that are not in a paper, select the citations, right click, and select Copy As > Formatted Citation. Paste the citations into a document. Learn more about the Word plugin for Windows and Mac. Read and Annotate PDFs Click the PDF icon in your Mendeley library next to a citation. There are basic tools at the top of the screen for highlighting, selecting, and adding notes. Tips and Tricks: Use the share button to send a PDF to someone else. If they have Mendeley they can see the annotations and notes. Export a PDF with annotations using File > Export PDF with Annotations Notes will be added to the Notes tab in the side panel. Currently annotations cannot be exported from a PDF or opened in another program. Share Papers with Groups Create a group online or using the Create Group.. button in the left panel. Send an invite via email. Everyone in your group can see the citations, attached PDFs and annotations that were created in Mendeley. Tips and Tricks: You can add papers to groups via your online Mendeley account or in Mendeley Desktop. 5
User Options Document Settings Click the Edit Settings button above your list of citations. Choose whether or not Mendeley syncs attached documents, like PDFs, from each folder. If you run out of space in your online account, you may want to turn off this option. Mendeley will still sync the citations, but the PDFs will remain on your computer. Mendeley Options Click Tools > Options o Document Details: Check off what type of information is shown in the Details panel for each type of document. o File Organizer: Organize my files: make a copy of all documents added to Mendeley to one folder Sort files into subfolders: create a folder structure based on selected document details Rename document files: rename the often non-descriptive names of your PDFs to file names that are more meaningful, including the author, journal, year, and title o BibTex: Set preferences for exporting to BibTex. 6